"Every one of the hundred million Arabs has been living ... to see the day Israel
is liquidated"

Cairo Radio’s Voice of the Arabs broadcast,
May 18th 1967.

Recollections From The Six-Day War

- Joseph Puder , The Bulletin , Philadelphia

In the early morning hours of Monday, June 5, 1967, the sun was already
heating everything up around the Tel Nof airbase. Some of us were making
our way to the mess hall of the base as Jordanian artillery shells shook
the earth. Fragments reached our barracks, puncturing the outer walls with
significant holes. Located in central Israel, the airbase was just a few
miles away from a Jordanian base.

In the preceding few weeks, it was the IAF (Israel Air Force) that carried
the brunt of the preparation for a war no one wished for. The war however
appeared to be imminent as Abdul Nasser, the Egyptian dictator, ordered
the U.N. forces to vacate the Sinai and then moved over 100,000 Egyptian
troops into the Sinai in early May, while at the same time closing the Straits
of Tiran to Israeli navigation, in breach of international agreements.

All ground and aircrews were restricted to the base, and all leaves were
canceled already in early May. Our base was on alert, and the work assigned
to every squadron was feverish. We were on a 24-hour work shift, with most
of us getting a mere two hours of sleep in those numbing weeks, restocking,
testing systems, receiving instruction on emergency procedures. Maj. General
Motti Hod, the commander of the IAF, was busy with the top brass reactivating
shelved plans. The IAF alone could save Israel, and in briefings we received
from the commander of our airbase, we were left with that indelible impression.

The bombs exploding in our airbase in the early morning hours of June
5 were a fearful indicator that war had broken out. We were confident that
we had done all we could in the sleepless weeks, and hoped for the best.
According to news reports on the Voice of Israel, the government of Prime
Minister Levi Eshkol had appealed to King Hussein of Jordan not to attack
Israel, and assured the king that Israel would not attack his kingdom unless
attacked first.

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